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Private Sydney: Is Rove the next Rove?

Private Sydney: Is Rove the next Rove?

Its been some time since Australia has had a top rating late night chat show, and now the race is on to recreate the format for a new generation. Will Rove come back? If not, who could succeed? Andrew Hornery investigates.

Soon, Ford was on Seven's The Morning Show, fleshing out the story with more details about a cracked elbow, an impending operation on an injured back, and even the possibility of Meldrum needing to be flown back to Australia via Medivac.

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"Initially, it didn't seem that bad," Ford said. "The old expression of feeling no pain, well, he wasn't feeling any pain on the night, but over the next couple of days it became apparent."

How did Ford know all this? He confirmed to Fairfax Media on Monday morning that he had sourced his information from the reports of Seven News reporter Nick McCallum.

McCallum has been something of an embedded journalist on this story, pushing Meldrum around Bangkok in a wheelchair, sitting in on the doctor's consultation (through which Meldrum holds a mobile phone to his ear), joking with the "seriously crook" Meldrum while guiding him by the elbow (presumably not the injured one) down a staircase in the Thai capital.

It's a strange twist of fate for Meldrum, who allegedly only went to Thailand to avoid what he imagined would be a blitz of media interest around the screening of Molly, which is produced by Mushroom Pictures, headed by fellow music industry legend, and long-time mate, Michael Gudinski.

Incidentally, Mushroom has released a soundtrack compilation for the series, subtitled Do Yourself a Favour, after Meldrum's famous catchphrase. In a press release for the album, Meldrum claimed "watching the mini-series and listening to this album, my life literally flashes before my eyes".

None of this is to suggest that Molly Meldrum isn't seriously injured and in need of medical attention.

But there's something a little distasteful in the way Seven is treating Molly's bad turn as a good one, making hay with a closed loop of publicity thinly veiled as news, none of which fails to mention the forthcoming TV show.